Tag Archives: Human rights

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Media reports in South Korea had suggested that the camp, officially known as Penal Labour Colony 22, had been abandoned and the inmates dispersed to other prisons.

Imagery collected by the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea as recently as October 11 indicates the camp continues to function, it said in a report.

“Harvesting of crops continues, as does coal production, making it not yet clear that the camp has closed and that North Korean authorities have been slowly transferring small sections of prisoners out of Camp 22 and replacing them with a regular workforce from other locations,” the group said in a statement.

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In each case, the Home Office accepted their argument that deporting them would breach their human rights rather than asking a judge to decide. The number has increased fivefold in four years, throwing into doubt the commitment of Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to deporting foreign criminals.

They were allowed to stay despite Damian Green, the immigration minister, telling the Commons last December that the Government was “doing everything in our power to increase the number and speed of removals”.

The figures, disclosed to The Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act, show that there were 56 such cases in 2008, rising to 80 in 2009, 217 in 2010 and 250 in 2011 and that:

• In 2011, at least one terrorist – and possibly up to four – was allowed to stay, as well as up to eight killers and rapists. Also among the total were 20 robbers and up to eight paedophiles, plus as many as four people convicted of firearms offences.

• In 2010, the Home Office conceded in the cases of up to four murderers and up to four people convicted of manslaughter, as well as up to four rapists, up to eight paedophiles and 43 people convicted of violent crime or robbery.

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The bombardment began before dawn. Government tanks pounded a civilian neighbourhood with artillery in an attack that struck dozens of homes. By early morning nine women and three children were among the dead, the pro-opposition watchdog the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

YouTube footage showed a mosque strewn with casualties. The wounded lay groaning the carpeted floor, surrounded by family members as doctors sought to treat them with limited medical supplies.

The disturbing scenes came only a day after UN observers gained access to the site of a bloody massacre where dozens of civilians were stabbed or shot to death.

The traces of the atrocity were obvious; as the monitors entered al-Qubeir village they found an entire neighbourhood razed to the ground, the flesh of the victims stick stuck to some of the burnt walls.

“Armoured vehicle tracks were in the vicinity. Some homes were damaged by rockets from armoured vehicles, grenades and a range of calibre weapons,” said Mark Nesirky, UN Spokesperson.

The Home Secretary disclosed last week that immigration rules will be changed by the summer to ensure the “right to private and family life” can only be used to avoid deportation in “rare and exceptional cases”.

But the country’s most senior immigration judge has delivered a ruling in a landmark case which, experts say, reinforces the rights of immigrants who commit serious crimes to avoid deportation.

Mr Justice Blake, the president of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, said a “settled migrant” could not be removed from the country unless there were “very serious reasons” to do so.

Having lived in the UK from a young age, or having a child or partner here, can strengthen a criminal’s claim to stay.

The judge has flagged up his ruling as a “reported determination”, which means that it will used by other judges to decide similar cases.

Islamist fanatics want rule by the sharia, their version of the law of God. They reject what they call “man-made” laws – the laws by which most nations live. For the same reason, Islamists reject democracy. It is a sham, they say, and an offence against God.

Those who support the untrammelled power of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) are the secular equivalent. They think that the European Convention on Human Rights and the Strasbourg court which enforces it are sacred. They believe these rights should be forced upon people everywhere, regardless of how anyone votes. Human rights are their sharia.

In Iran, the Guardian Council of senior clergy makes the final decision about whether anything passed by the parliament is compatible with Islamic law. In Europe, the ECHR has the same absolute authority over the decisions of all the member parliaments, including our own. True, its punishments do not (yet) involve stoning or the cutting off of hands, but the principle is the same: “We,” says the priesthood of human rights lawyers, “are in possession of the truth: no other power may stand against us.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, says the proposals to allow same-sex unions are “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

The cardinal’s intervention, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, is the strongest criticism yet from any church figure of the plans, which are due to be unveiled this month by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister.

He accuses ministers of trying to “redefine reality” and change long-standing laws and traditions “at the behest of a small minority of activists”.

The cardinal has added his voice to those of leading figures in the Coalition for Marriage, a group of bishops, politicians and lawyers opposed to the changes. The group’s supporters include Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

The group is in outright opposition to Mr Cameron, who hopes to make legislation changing the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, expected by 2015, one of the central achievements of his time in office.

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Iran plainly takes the United States as a fool in its hyper deceptive machinations for a nuclear deal. But it's so much worse than that. Bashing Israel and trying to manipulate the entire political system is also central to its plans, not that that's difficult with Barack Obama at the helm

The National Health Service is of vital importance to most Britons, and the Tories have much to offer. But Labour, while making it central to their campaign, appear to have nothing serious to offer, except the example of the NHS in Wales where Labour control has made matters worse

In the dangerous last two years of Obama's presidency, things could go from bad to worse. His allies are now backing a pro-Sharia populist in Nigeria's presidential election, with potentially disastrous results

It is almost unbelievable that Barack Obama trusts Iran over nuclear weapons even as the country's leaders chant "Death to America", and openly say that diplomatic talks are a central part of the Jihad. Obama just doesn't get it, and puts the world in mortal danger

There has been a strange alliance between Alex Salmond and Rupert Murdoch. Salmond the supreme egotist lets rip (about himself as much as Scotland) in his tragicomic, melodramatic account of the failed independence referendum campaign

The liberal-Left in Britain, and elsewhere, is engaged in willful blindness about Israel's ability to forge a two-state solution. The reality is that it isn't in Israel's gift to bring one about because the Palestinians always reject it. It's time the West woke up

Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy policy was one of the most successful innovations of the 1980s. Cameron is not known to be quite so radical. But the Conservatives have definitely got some better ideas on property buying than hopeless Labour

If Brussels wanted to show further evidence of its arrogance and contempt for Britain, it couldn't have thought up a dafter scheme than to try and destroy our rights to help our small cider makers. We must get Britain out of the EU, and right now stop this unfolding disaster

Sweden's openness is admirable, but is it successful? Are immigrants assimilating and contributing to Sweden’s economy? Unfortunately, the answer in many cases is no. Still, at least its welfare system isn't subsidising terrorism...yet